Fire & Rain: Book 1

Jet

Zuko's POV
The three of us stood at the edge of the boat, staring out at the sea as we departed.

Uncle sighed,

"Who would've thought after all these years, I'd return to the scene of my greatest military disgrace... as a tourist!"

I groaned and turned away before snapping,

"Look around. We're not tourists, we're refugees."

I took a sip from my bowl before spitting the bitter tasting "food" into the sea,

"Ugh! I'm sick of eating rotten food, sleeping in the dirt. I'm tired of living like this."

Then from behind me I heard a stranger's voice,

"Aren't we all? My name's Jet, and these are my freedom fighters: Smellerbee and Longshot."

One of them mumbled, "hey" and the other nodded, I turned back away before replying,

"Hello."

"Here's the deal, I hear the captain's eating like a king while all us refugees have to feed off his scraps. Doesn't seem fair, does it?"

Uncle turned around, intrigued,

"What sort of king is he eating like?"

"The fat, happy kind."

Uncle was practically drooling. Jet turned back to me and asked,

"You wanna help us liberate some food?"

I looked at the rotten food in my bowl and then turned to Y/N, she threw her hands up and shrugged,

"Don't look at me, he asked for your help, not mine."

Jet eyed her and traced his gaze down to the katana in her belt and then over to the spear and bow attached to her backpack before raising his eyebrow,

"Your girlfriend looks pretty capable, we could use both of your help."

Y/N furrowed her eyebrows and snapped,

"I'm not his girlfriend!"

I knew I shouldn't have cared, I had no right to feel that way, but hearing her jump so defensively to that, it stung.

My eyes fell back on the bowl of gunk in front of me, I felt anger wash over me as I threw it into the ocean,

"I'm in."

Later that night, the five of us planned a stealthy break-in to collect the food from the kitchen, Y/N and Longshot waited outside, standing guard, whilst Jet, Smellerbee and I grabbed the goods.

We were in and out in no time, Y/N and Longshot's archery provided zip lines for us to quickly escape, and so the refugees ate well that night.

We all sat together, enjoying the good food when uncle started,

"So, Smellerbee, that's an unusual name for a young man."

I heard Y/N slap her palm to her face before Smellerbee, who was clearly upset, got up and yelled,

"Maybe it's because I'm not a man, I'm a girl!"

"Oh! Now I see! It's a beautiful name for a lovely girl!"

Longshot ran after her whilst I sat, unbothered, eating my food. Jet joined us and started,

"From what I heard, people eat like this every night in Ba Sing Se. I can't wait to set my eyes on that giant wall."

Uncle replied,

"It is a magnificent sight."

"So you've been there before?"